Thread: Has the cost of this shooting as a hobby gone up or down?

I have been a shooter for about 15 years, which is a lot shorter than many old timers here.

Do you think the cost of shooting as a hobby, relative to income, has gone up or down? I remember reading somewhere that people used cull deer in Fiordland and get paid 3 bullets per deer. so bullets were so precious that it was worth the trouble for people go culling after it. 1 hour income on minimum wage today buys you 6~8 bullets.

Let me start the conversation with some points on both sides:

+ I would think with improvement of technology, the cost of good stuff: good powder, precision projectile, good brass, precision barrel, must have came down relative to income.

+ Mass production should also have made things cheaper relative to income.

- Everything shooting related is heavy on chemical and metal processing. With increased environmental awareness, cost of compliance increased hence increasing cost of production.

- With capitalism, smaller players get eaten by bigger players, there are less players out there for high barrier-of-entry products, they probably by now have some level of monopoly/duopoly/oligopoly. Are Eley, SK, Lapua, CCI and Hornady in such places? Luckily for shooting, other than bullets I cannot think of anything else that has high barrier-of-entry.

- Range costs have definitely gone up with free ranges drying up.